19S 
ON IMPORTATIONS OF IODINE. 
discrimination in favor of such articles as had not such des- 
tination. In consequence, however, of the rejection of 
some iodine, the importers made application to the Treasury 
Department to allow their condemned lot to be delivered, 
on their giving bond to the U. States, that the article should 
be re-manufactured, or used exclusively in the arts. The 
Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, by instructions dated 
July 16th, 1840, replied, "On a careful examination of the 
law, the Department is unable to discover any authority 
to direct such delivery or to sanction any departure from 
the course prescribed and accordingly the only considera- 
tion which could since be entertained by the Examiner in 
deciding upon the admissibility of any drugs, medicinal or 
chemical preparations, " used wholly or in part as medi- 
cine," has been their " fitness for medical purposes" — what- 
ever might have been the object for which such articles 
had been imported. As was to have been expected some 
little dissatisfaction has been occasionally expressed by those 
who have been incommoded by this restriction. 
It might, perhaps, have been questioned whether by the 
spirit of the law, a bond or other satisfactory evidence of 
the destination of chemicals, did not indeed furnish the very 
ground of determining the Examiner's jurisdiction in the 
matter. By the provisions of the act, drugs imported into 
this country are to be condemned, and destroyed (unless re- 
exported out of the limits of the U. S. within six months 
after the condemnation,) if they are found "to be so far 
adulterated or in any manner deteriorated, as to render 
them inferior in strength and purity to the standard esta- 
blished by the United States, Edinburgh, London, French 
and German pharmacopoeias and dispensatories, and there- 
by improper, unsafe, or dangerous to be used for medicinal 
purposes." 
With what justice can an article be pronounced improper, 
unsafe or dangerous for m« d en al use, which is known to 
be wanted for no such application? Is it not somewhat 
incongruous that fitness for medical purposes should be 
